Firefox OS Will Win Big With Developers - Mozilla 229
judgecorp writes "Mozilla's mobile operating system Firefox OS will win overwhelming support from developers because it dropped XUL in favour of HTML5, says the head of Mozilla Europe in an interview. Firefox OS is more open than iOS and Android, and 75 percent of apps are already written in HTML5."
No, it won't (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually it won't.
Developers will look towards the jobs which earn money, meaning the popular platforms like iOS and Android. To even think Firefox OS will in any way take a reasonable portion of the marketshare is a complete and utter joke.
Mozilla missed the mobile boat 2 years ago. Hear that mozilla? It's the sound of a fog horn in the distance, get swimming(which is what they're doing right now).
They should refocus their efforts or they're going to drown.
phones? idk...but a cheap tablet for schools... (Score:4, Interesting)
while I'm not sold on the idea that we need another phone OS, I would think the combination of a cheap tablet with an HTML5 based OS on it is a decent alternative to laptops and netbooks for elementary education purposes. Books, interactive exercises, and word-processing abilities all in one. Allow a school to run their own Google Office-style server to keep things local...could be neat (:
Best of luck (seriously) (Score:5, Interesting)
It is going to be really tough for Mozilla to make headway with their own mobile OS. Palm, Nokia, RIM, etc. have all failed in spite of enormous efforts, and the only ones that have succeeded now have complete ecosystems built around their devices.
So, I believe that the chances of Firefox OS succeeding are really slim.
And this is coming from someone who believes that Mozilla saved the Web, and who runs firefox on their phone (which is part of the problem - I already have mobile firefox).
Re:Best of luck (seriously) (Score:5, Interesting)
Carrier manhandling (never trust those bastards) and getting snapped up by HP were the biggest contributors to their fall.
Unrepentant managerial incompetence. Hell, Nokia had a winner in the N9 but their internal practices kept it from seeing the light of day early enough to actually be of use.
But the presence of those "ecosystems" does not preclude competitors. Nor do they mean that no one else should try. This is probably the worst argument I've seen, if anything it gives even more reason to hate ecosystems as they seem more adept at inhibiting competition and user choice than anything else.
Depends on the market they go into. Success doesn't mean that they drastically displace iOS or Android, only that sales of devices running the platform are profitable. Profitability means that there's opportunity to grow.
On top of that, if you focus on regions using GSM that don't have their handset choices constrained by the regional carriers you have a far better chance than in backwards markets like the US.
Re:Go for it (Score:5, Interesting)
Firefox has better memory management than any other popular browser. If you aren't seeing that, then you aren't on the latest Firefox version or you've got some horribly leaky add-ons installed. (The add-on problem is fixed in Firefox 15 Beta and will be available in 6 weeks.)
I Welcome FirefoxOS (Score:4, Interesting)
I think Mozilla is absolutely insane coming in to the market so late, but I welcome the competition. As others have pointed out, I am not sure how well it will go over as a Phone OS, but I can absolutely see it as a hobbyist OS. It would be great on tablets, set top boxes (or flash the firmware on your Smart TV), Raspberry Pi.
I already have a few idea's I could use it for. Small personal projects, mostly based around a Raspberry Pi. I use and like Android but FirefoxOS would be better suited from what I have read so far.
I do web development for a living. The idea of HTML5 apps excites me as it is a system I know very well.
Huge win if they come out with an easy to install distro for Raspberry Pi.
Re:No, it won't (Score:3, Interesting)
I think they were told the same thing about developing a browser when internet explorer owned the market.
Re:No, it won't (Score:3, Interesting)
Developers will look towards the jobs which earn money, meaning the popular platforms like iOS and Android. To even think Firefox OS will in any way take a reasonable portion of the marketshare is a complete and utter joke.
A lot of apps are written in HTML5 and then converted - using tools like PhoneGap - to apps for iOS and Android, so there's already a huge developer base writing apps with these tools.
I can definitely imagine devs writing an Open Web App and then using one of these native wrappers to package it up for the other operating systems.